Keith: "You Can't Cry, You Can't Sneeze, You Can't Cough"

Keith Urban breaks his post-vocal cord surgery silence by saying it was a strange recovery, one spent in total silence.

“I had this operated on and you have to [go] three weeks [with] no talking, no uttering a sound, and you can’t cry, you can’t sneeze, you can’t cough, you can’t clear your throat,” Keith told Access Hollywood.

“It was a strange three weeks," he said, adding it was tough not being able to talk with his wife, Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, and their 3-year-old daughter, Sunday Rose.

“Not being able to talk for three weeks, that’s a long time,” Keith said. “If you have to engage in some sort of heated discussion, the other person can talk and I just have to write.”

But not to Sunday Rose.

“She can’t read, so I had that issue, too. . . . Mum had to communicate,” he said, smiling.

Keith is slated to sing for the first time in public Feb. 3 at the Grand Ole Opry.